… South Carolina is 1-31 all-time against top-5 teams. The Gamecocks’ only win came in 1981 over No. 3 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. That was six head coaches ago.

They have never beaten a top-5 team at Williams-Brice Stadium.

And under Spurrier, the Gamecocks are just 1-7 against top-10 opponents and 5-13 against Top-25 foes.

Not good.

Meanwhile, Arizona State has its own cross to bear when it rolls into Athens.

… The Sun Devils, who face No. 17 Georgia this week in Athens, are 3-26 against top-25 teams since 2000. The program is also winless in four tries against the Southeastern Conference.

And it’s hard to see how this will help.

… Arizona State does have one big problem: All-America kicker Thomas Weber has been lost for possibly six weeks because of a groin injury, leaving the kicking chores to either walk-on freshman Bobby Wenzig or 26-year-old linebacker Mike Nixon.

Wenzig’s name isn’t even listed in the school’s media guide. Nixon, a former catcher in the Dodgers organization, enjoyed some kicking success at Phoenix’s Sunnyslope High — he made six field goals . . . in 2001.

I have no real reason to feel this way, but when I had to pick this game and the Cocks were getting 4 points at home, I just felt Ole Miss wasn’t going to cover. I think it was the memory of that Kentucky-SC game a couple of years ago in Columbia on a Thursday night that kept tainting my vision. SC’s defense kept making Woodson play an ugly ball game and ended up stealing the game with maybe two defensive scores. That is kind of what I am expecting tonight. Deja vu? We’ll see soon.

That may mean they have us where they want us based on this from Hale’s blog:

“Overall, the opposition is just 15-of-46 (32.6 percent) on third down, but on fourth down, that number shoots up to a successful conversion on 5-of-7 tries (71.4 percent), with one being the fake punt executed by South Carolina.”